You've taken your requisite Apple product unboxing video and boasted about your brand new Mac on Facebook, but now it's time to get down to business. Whether you're new to the Mac or not, here's how to set up and get started.

Before you dive right into your new Mac, there are a few things you ought to do first:

Run Software Update: Chances are your new Mac isn't as new as it could be. Since OS X was probably pre-installed on it quite awhile back, you're probably due for an update. To get things started, head on over to the Apple menu and choose Software Update. This will launch—you guessed it—Software Update and it will check for new updates. When it's done, install everything available. After you restart, repeat this process again to see if there are new updates. Some updates can't install until others have already been installed, so keep checking until Software Update reports that there are no new updates available

Get to Know System Preferences: If you're new to the Mac, you should probably take a leisurely stroll through System Preferences (which you can access through the Apple menu and likely find in your dock). Take a look at each of the preference panels so you can become acquainted with your options. You'll eventually find yourself spending a fair amount of time in here so it helps to know where things are.

Set Up Your Sharing Preferences: In System Preferences, there's a panel called Sharing. Open that up and you'll be presented with a long list of sharing services. Many of these services are very helpful if you need to share with another computer (whether it's your own or someone else's). Take a look at them all and enable the ones you'd find useful—just make sure to only allow your user or any future users created on the machine may end up with access to the enabled services.

Repair Disk Permissions: Once you're all done, it's always good form to repair your disk permissions so nothing gets out of whack. To do this, go into your Hard Drive —> Applications —> Utilities and open Disk Utility. Choose your hard drive from the list on the left, select the First Aid tab, and click the Repair Permissions button. This will take a few minutes and may not end up repairing anything at all, but it's always good to run it on a regular basis and after you've made significant changes to your machine.

Tips for First-Timers

If this is your first time with a Mac, we've got you covered with switching guides and a look at the latest version of Mac OS X Mavericks.

Advertisement

Hack Attack: A guide for switching to a Mac: If you're new to the Mac platform—fresh off the Windows world—this guide to switching explains how to make sense out of all the differences between Windows and OS X, highlighting how to accomplish the same things in OS X you're already completely familiar with doing in Windows.

50 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For: This Thanksgiving you voted on the best free apps you're most thankful for. We tallied the votes and here are the top 50. While not every item on this list are for the Mac, many are and they're all great.

Automate Just About Anything on Your Mac, No Coding Required: Even if you're not a programmer, you can easily create tiny, time-saving applications that breeze through repetitive tasks-renaming large groups of files, executing terminal commands, and much more-with the simple, code-free, drag-and-drop interface of OS X's built-in tool, Automator.

Customize Your Desktop: If you use a computer and read Lifehacker, it's probably safe to assume you've customized your desktop. But if you haven't, or you're looking for a fresh new look, here are some great options to explore this weekend.

Permanently Disable the OS X Bouncing Dock Icon Effect: Have you ever been busy getting work done when a random Dock icon starts bouncing up and down, begging for your attention? The Switching To Mac blog writes up how to completely disable the often distracting effect.